Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
A bullet is much more effective.
When I yank my gun out of its holster, she talks fast. “All I did was ask the IVF nurse to place your sperm inside Valentina. That’s it. I didn’t want to get fat taking hormones for egg production, and you weren’t interested in the old-fashioned approach, so I picked someone I thought would remain a random. Someone I assumed you’d have no interest in. It just helped that she had a similar name. But that’s all I did, Giovanni. I swear.”
Her tone is drenched in as much honesty as it is desperation, but I’m done playing nice. “Valentina was poisoned.” I crowd in closer until my shadow replicates the darkness I’m about to shove her in. “With the cake you gave her.”
Her eyes widen as sheer panic slides over her face, her mask ripped away. “I didn’t know he was going to do that.” Her crackling whisper can’t hide the truth in her statement. “I swear to God, Giovanni. I had no idea. He just asked me to give her the cake.”
An icy chill rolls down my spine as my wish for vengeance doubles. Good, because I have too much adrenaline to disperse for only one hit.
“He?”
That one word kills Valeria better than a bullet ever could. She looks panicked. Rightfully so. She knows I’ll be digging more than one grave tonight.
“Who is he, Valeria? And why would he want to hurt Valentina? The only person stupid enough to think they’d get any benefit out of her death is you…” My words trail off as the answer to my question wounds me like a bomb exploding in my face.
Two weeks ago, in this very fucking compound, I cut all ties with Tommaso when he delivered Valeria to me already injured. That wasn’t my request. I said I wanted eyes on her, but he took it upon himself to split her lip, bruise her eye, and give her a bloody nose.
I told him it was the last straw. If he couldn’t follow orders, he wasn’t the right fit for the Caruso name.
His mocking laugh rang in my ears for hours. “You don’t have a choice,” he said, like he had every leg to stand on. “My grandchild makes me family. There are rules not even you can break when blood is involved.”
And that’s when I made a fatal mistake. I told him the truth, straight from my heart to his ears. I told him Valentina wasn’t carrying Valeria’s child. She was carrying her own.
My confession turned his leverage to dust. It stripped him of any power he wrongly believed he held, and now Valentina is paying the price for my mistake.
My chest is splitting open, but it doesn’t douse the rage burning through me.
If anything, it feeds the flames.
Tommaso poisoned Valentina.
He tried to kill her to punish me.
To control me.
And now he and his daughter will die for his stupidity.
My focus drifts back to Valeria when she snivels, “I’m sorry, Giovanni. I didn’t know he’d do this when I told him there was no chance you’d pick me over Valentina, especially since she is carrying your child. I swear, I didn’t.”
I crouch down and look her in the eyes. “You think this ends with an apology? That I’ll let you walk because you said you’re sorry?” I fist my gun so firmly my knuckles go white. “Your father just declared war on my fucking family… for you!”
“No.” Her usually stern expression deteriorates as tears spill down her cheeks. “This has never been about me. Not our contract or the baby. It’s always been about what he wants. I didn’t have a choice. I’ve never had a choice—”
“I don’t care! Valentina almost died. So now you, and everyone in your family, will learn what happens when you come for what’s mine.” Her snivels ramp up to full-on sobs when I slowly inch back the trigger.
“Giovanni…” This plea doesn’t come from Valeria. It comes from Dante, who is standing at our side with his arms folded across his chest. “There’s more to this than you know.”
“I don’t give a fuck.”
“You might not, but Valentina may.” He steps closer, placing himself in the firing line. “You also know what Valeria is saying is true. You may not like it, but it doesn’t make it any less honest.”
“You’re on her side?” My words spit from my mouth. “She tried to kill the woman I love.”
“No, she didn’t.”
In sync, Dante and I rocket our heads to the side. There’s no sign of the illness that’s been ravaging our father’s body for the past year when he assists Matteo in tossing a battered and bruised Tommaso into the foyer of our family home, and then he slams the door shut behind Elio and Nico.
The war I was anticipating earlier is in effect, except the Carusos aren’t being brought before the courts. The Guiffridas are.